ICWDS 10

Chapter 10

Warehouse No. 6 (2)

A Level 5 Hunter’s sprinting speed was barely inferior to a speeding car.

Kang Cheong-hwa, who was giving chase to Yoon Ga-on’s wild runaway, was appalled by the feats he was displaying. No matter how thoroughly possessed he was by a bewitching spirit, those were not the movements of an ordinary person.

He claimed he awakened as a Level 1 hunter… Was he actually telling the truth?

If true, it crossed from surprising into terrifying territory.

When entering and exiting Dark Zones, hunters naturally awakened magic power through the accumulation of Karma. After all, magic power was like the very air that saturated the Dark World. However, not only did the amount refined vary from person to person, but there was also a hard ceiling to how much one could store. The higher one’s Karma index climbed, the greater the risk of corruption, which was why most hunters completed their tasks swiftly and pulled out.

Yet Ga-on had absorbed the corrupted individual’s Karma in its entirety and remained completely unfazed. His Karma index, which had spiked all the way into the 6,000s, had normalized in a single day—meaning his purification capacity was hundreds of times greater than that of an average hunter.

It was a trait that could only be explained as pure Corruption Resistance.

He was a talent the Management Bureau absolutely had to secure.

However, as Ga-on came to a halt right in front of the bewitching object, Kang Cheong-hwa grew desperate.

The relics inside ‘The Deep’ are all without exception, highly dangerous items!

They were top-tier hazard relics into which the Bureau poured most of the massive budget it received from the state. And among them, the one located where Yoon Ga-on was heading right now was…

The Velocity Flow Heart (속류심)!

The culprit behind the Yeouido 6-Second Tragedy five years ago.

Just six seconds.

In the brief time before the user’s heart exploded, over two thousand casualties were produced.

“Stop right there!”

Sure enough, Ga-on had reached the display case holding the Velocity Flow Heart.

To stop him, she transformed her Demonic Hand.

Clank!

A Class-1 bewitching object that replaced the host’s arm to transform into a weapon of destructive power. In exchange, her body was undergoing continuous mechanization, but Kang Cheong-hwa did not hesitate.

“Yoon Ga-on! If you don’t step back, I will shoot!”

It was the maximum firepower she could deploy at a moment’s notice—far beyond anything a Level 1 Hunter could defend against. Rather than letting a calamity escape outside the Bureau, it was better to kill him here and now.

Kang Cheong-hwa sincerely prayed that Ga-on would not touch the object.

“My precious!”

The moment Ga-on stubbornly reached out his hand, Kang Cheong-hwa pulled the trigger on her right arm, which had transformed into a charged-particle cannon.

BOOM!

A concentrated beam of particle energy swallowed Ga-on whole. It was a blast so scorching hot that, against a regular human, not even bones would remain.

As the smoke cleared, Kang Cheong-hwa searched for Ga-on, who had vanished from plain sight.

“Where did he…?”

Rolling her eyes rapidly, she finally spotted Ga-on in a corner. How on earth did he get over there already?

No, considering the power of the Velocity Flow Heart, is it really impossible?

“No!”

Kang Cheong-hwa tried to fire a second shot, but Ga-on was already swallowing the heart whole.

I came to my senses only after I had swallowed the heart.

To give a review of the taste first: it was surprisingly delicious.

The outer skin was chewy yet slightly crispy, while the thick, rich blood juices on the inside spread with a subtle sweetness. Its deep, distinct animalistic flavor left behind a savory, rich, and oily aftertaste. I almost regretted not sharing it with Heok-ro.

Good things ought to be shared, right?

Still, how on earth did I even think to eat something with such a horrifying visual?

【Hey! Are you alright! Host! Get a grip!】

“Uh, why?”

【Host?】

“Man, this tastes great. I should’ve given you a piece.”

Sharing delicious food only doubles the joy, doesn’t it?

“By the way, why is it so dusty in here…?”

【Host! Dodge!】

Just then, a sharp mechanical whirring sound echoed, and I saw Kang Cheong-hwa pointing her arm right at me. Her right arm had transformed into something resembling a Gatling gun. Spinning rapidly, it looked ready to pour out nine thousand rounds a minute at any second—

“Argh!”

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!!

A roaring barrage of gunfire erupted, sweeping through the space I had been standing in just a moment ago.

Help! Somebody save me!

I ran for dear life, but Kang Cheong-hwa’s muzzle kept following me.

“Hey! Stop shooting!”

I yelled out to her, but no answer came. Between the blaring alarm sirens and the continuous thunder of the Gatling gun, she couldn’t hear me.

【Use the power of the heart! You must survive first!】

“The heart’s power?”

Come to think of it, I did just eat a heart. Ugh… how did I swallow something so grotesque?

But even if you tell me to use it out of nowhere, how am I supposed to use it?

【A Demonic Armament assimilates with the body and can be activated through sheer willpower! The armament you took must possess immense power!】

“So how do I use it?!”

【Focus your magic power. Imagine it circulating inside that demonic armament and activate it.】

Following Heok-ro’s advice, I directed my magic power toward my heart.

“Agh!”

It hurt.

It felt as though my heart had been struck full-force with a sledgehammer.

In that instant, however, I realized something had gone strange with my field of vision.

“Uh… huh?”

The world slowed down.

As if time itself had decelerated.

The storm of bullets pouring from the Gatling gun flowed like a slow-motion film, and even Kang Cheong-hwa’s movements seemed frozen in place.

I took large strides forward, walking straight toward her.

“Uh, well…”

Should I stop it now? How do I stop this?

As it turned out, there was no need for me to stop it manually. Right after, the world returned to normal.

“Cough!”

A sudden, overwhelming surge of exhaustion washed over me. I gasped for air, nearly collapsing.

“When did you…?!”

Kang Cheong-hwa’s eyes widened in shock as she spun around to face me.

“Wait a second!”

“…”

“Instead of shooting… why don’t we negotiate?”

“Are you… in your right mind?”

“Yes, yes, of course. I’m totally sane.”

Even though my heart hurts like crazy.

KABOOM!

The wrecked Letona exploded in the background. Furthermore, the heavy reinforced glass wall was shattered into pieces.

“Can I claim diminished capacity…?”

“…”

What on earth did I just do?

Inside an interrogation room at the Management Bureau.

I never expected to end up back here, but considering what I had pulled off, I was lucky to be treated this gently.

“It seems you have zero resistance to enchantment, Ga-on,” Park Do-gyeong remarked.

“Enchantment?”

“Yes. It’s the power demonic entities use to draw potential hosts toward themselves. Resistance against their insidious temptation varies wildly from person to person, but…”

“Mine seems nonexistent.”

Park Do-gyeong nodded in agreement.

First Heok-ro, then the demonic ring in the Dark Zone… and now this incident proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt. I was far too vulnerable to the whispering voices of demonic items.

“However, your resistance to Corruption is absurdly high. To the point where calling it complete immunity wouldn’t be an exaggeration…”

“That’s kind of an unbalanced build, isn’t it?”

“I’ve never seen a case like yours either…”

Park Do-gyeong pulled out a measuring device and checked my stats once more. This was already the sixth time inside this interrogation room alone.

“1,190, huh… It dropped ridiculously fast from the 13,000 range. It seems the higher your Karma index spikes, the faster your recovery rate becomes.”

“Phew… Over 10,000… Was I really on the verge of corrupting?”

“For an Awakened who has unlocked magic power, up to 10,000 is generally considered a safe zone.”

Was the reason I didn’t corrupt because I had awakened magic power? Or was I simply immune to corruption? While I didn’t know the exact answer, I had no desire to test it out experimentally.

“But why did my corruption level spike like that? Just holding a demonic item doesn’t instantly corrupt you, does it?”

“That’s because you overused the power of the Demonic Armament, Ga-on.”

“Demonic Armament?”

Come to think of it, Heok-ro had also called the thing I ate a demonic armament.

“Demonic Armaments refer to demonic items that assimilate with a living body. The more you use them, the more Karma they spew internally, corrupting the host.”

“Isn’t that insanely dangerous?”

To think I swallowed such a gruesome object.

“In your case, Ga-on, you are instantly purifying the Karma spewed from your heart, so you’re fine. You went into a full power rampage and came out completely unscathed.”

“What do you mean? Rampage?”

Park Do-gyeong flipped through a stack of documents and showed me a specific file.

“The Yeouido 6-Second Tragedy?”

“It was a catastrophe caused by a corrupted individual who acquired the and went berserk in the middle of Yeouido Park. Just six seconds. In those six seconds, over two thousand people were killed.”

Gulp.

I instantly understood what Park Do-gyeong was implying.

The ability of the Demonic Armament that I had ingested was—

“Accelerating your internal perception of time. To the point where the world looks like it’s in slow motion.”

The 6-Second Tragedy.

On that day, the corrupted user had slaughtered over two thousand people during that brief stretch of accelerated time.

“You must be extremely careful moving forward. Demonic Armaments cause Karma levels to skyrocket depending on how much power you draw. There’s no guarantee you’ll walk away fine next time.”

“Understood.”

I had no desire to experience the backlash of using a Demonic Armament a second time anyway. Just how many times faster was I moving back then?

“By the way… is this really okay? It… kind of ended up with me eating it.”

“You don’t need to worry about that part. In fact, it’s a huge achievement. You cleared out a Special-Class Demonic Relic that was nothing but a headache for the Bureau.”

I felt a bit like a human trash can. Or maybe I literally was a garbage dump now.

“I hate to say this, but when you pass away, Ga-on, your heart itself will remain behind as the ‘Velocity Flow Heart’.”

“Gasp! Then what should I do?!”

“When your time comes, please request that your heart be thoroughly destroyed or cremated.”

Unbelievable!

I made a mental note to immediately uncheck the ‘heart’ box on my organ donor card.

“Still, this proves it,” Park Do-gyeong smiled brightly, looking thoroughly delighted by the outcome. “You have a powerful resistance to Corruption. That much is crystal clear now.”

Originally, they had intended to measure my Corruption resistance using low-grade demonic objects, but this incident proved that even a Special-Class Demonic Relic couldn’t corrupt me. My Corruption resistance was officially certified.

“We should conduct training.”

“Training?”

“Yes. We still don’t know the absolute upper limit of your Karma resistance.”

Normally, ordinary people face the risk of corruption starting from the 6,000 range. Even Awakened individuals who control magic power enter the danger zone past 10,000.

In my case, I recovered effortlessly after reaching 12,000, but there was no telling what would happen if it climbed to 20,000, 30,000, or 50,000.

“If you grow stronger yourself, Ga-on, your Corruption resistance is highly likely to increase even further. Reaching just a Level 3 Hunter rank would easily allow you to wield one or two Special-Class Demonic Armaments without strain.”

“How do I level up?”

“Well, fundamentally, you just have to roll around in the Dark Zones, spiking your Karma index and recovering repeatedly.”

Since I had absorbed Hunter Kim Tae-jin’s Karma index when I first awakened, his explanation wasn’t wrong.

But if it’s just a matter of raising and lowering my Karma index, isn’t there a much easier way?

“Can’t I just keep using the Demonic Armament? I can spike it up to 10,000 in an instant that way.”

“That won’t work.”

As I tilted my head in confusion, Kang Cheong-hwa, who was standing nearby, stepped in to explain.

“Think of a Demonic Armament as an internal organ. The blood or nutrients generated by an organ ultimately just circulate within the body.”

In other words, due to the law of conservation of mass, no matter how much you spike the Karma index internally, the total overall capacity doesn’t change.

“Above all, a Demonic Armament requires magic power to unleash its strength. A Level 1 Hunter’s magic capacity isn’t enough to use it effectively.”

“So, in the end, I really do have to absorb Karma inside Dark Zones.”

Both of them nodded in agreement.

“But I don’t necessarily have to absorb Karma only inside Dark Zones, right?”

“Huh? Uh…”

“…”

The two exchanged glances, their eyes suddenly widening as realization struck them.

Schwing.

Heok-ro was smoothly unsheathed.

“I’ll stab gently.”

Whew~ Treatment complete.

For the time being, I stayed at the Hunter Management Bureau.

It was to finalize an external storage contract for demonic objects at the government level, alongside an official external vendor contract with the Bureau. I questioned if I really needed to be paid this much, but Park Do-gyeong insisted I take it, saying I was saving them far more budget than that anyway.

“Um… in that case, please leave me just one million won and donate the rest to the Emmanuel Orphanage.”

“…This much money?”

“I’ll be earning plenty more from now on anyway. Besides, this was something I promised myself I’d do once I graduated from the orphanage.”

Donating my very first paycheck to the orphanage. Because it was the place that had raised me with love all those years.

“This goes way beyond the level of a ‘first paycheck’, but…”

“Well, you said you’d be giving me plenty of other jobs, right? I’ll make it back in no time.”

“If so, how about distributing the donation across multiple facilities? It’s a bit too large of an amount for a single place.”

I shook my head at Park Do-gyeong’s suggestion.

“No, please put it all into my orphanage. The Director will definitely put every bit of it to good use.”

Considering everything the Director does, even this might not be enough. Even though she told me not to worry about money…

Should I go visit her soon?

No, visiting less than a month after graduating feels a bit too soon.

“By the way, Team Leader Park, Agent Kang… are you two alright?”

“Hehehe! I feel like I’m living the good life these days!”

Park Do-gyeong showed me his stats on his index meter. It read 1,126—an absurdly low number considering it used to hover near 30,000.

However, it wasn’t his Karma index I was worried about.

“No… I mean your injuries.”

Park Do-gyeong had casts on his arms and legs, and underneath his clothes, he was wrapped in bandages all over.

“It couldn’t be helped. Simply stabbing arms and legs didn’t allow for proper absorption.”

After trying several stabs with Heok-ro, we found that to absorb Karma efficiently, the closer to the heart, the better. Thinking any stab would do, we had tried stabbing his arms and legs alternately, until medical staff stepped in with precise guidance to find a safe spot:

Right next to the sternum, between the 4th and 6th intercostal space.

It was the same area opened during heart surgeries, making it a relatively less fatal spot.

After successfully absorbing Park Do-gyeong’s Karma, Kang Cheong-hwa volunteered as well, allowing me to absorb a whopping 50,000 Karma from the two of them combined.

“I’ll have to rest up for a while, but hey, compared to constantly worrying about when I might corrupt, this is miles better.”

I heard Officer Kang Cheong-hwa had also been safely discharged. They really were sturdy people in every sense.

“Oh right. Can I call you ‘Park-hyung’? And I can just call Agent Kang ‘Cheong-hwa-누나’ (Noona). She’s only four years older than me, right?”

“Ah~ But Team Leader… isn’t your age a bit…”

“…I just turned twenty-eight.”

“No way!”

He looks like he’s at least in his nineties!

“Try staying on as a non-commissioned officer… You age real fast in the military.”

I had a feeling he gave off NCO vibes, and sure enough, he was a former military man. Park-hyung pouted at my reaction.

“Anyway, Ga-on, you’re practically my savior. If there’s anything you ever need, just say the word.”

“Oh, then please take good care of me when I get drafted into the military.”

“…? Why would you be going to the military, Ga-on?”

“Isn’t every young man in South Korea required to serve?”

Since I didn’t have dependents or a disability, I was guaranteed to be drafted as active duty. I was planning to take my physical exam and enlist in about two years.

“Hunters are exempt from military service as long as they maintain active Hunter status. Didn’t you know?”

“Ah…”

While there were a few conditions attached, Hunters generally received military exemptions. Over thirty thousand Hunters maintained their active status partly to keep that exemption.

It was an unexpected perk. Well, who could’ve guessed I’d awaken?

“Anyway, since Officer Kang is discharged now, why don’t you ask her to help you with training?”

“Ah, training?”

“Yeah, training to handle Demonic Armaments. Officer Kang’s arm is a Demonic Armament too.”

Come to think of it, Kang Cheong-hwa’s right arm was a demonic object as well. That made her a fellow Demonic Armament user.

“Ah, right. Before that, Ga-on. I brought a talisman artifact from the Director to back you up.”

“A talisman artifact?”

“Yes, a talisman artifact, not a demonic object. It’s something granted with the Director’s authorization when deemed necessary for external personnel. You can’t take all of them, but you can pick one.”

Park Do-gyeong pushed forward a box he had brought along.

As the box opened, talisman artifacts shimmering with brilliant light revealed themselves inside.